CDL submits top bid of $1,132 psf ppr for Lakeside Drive GLS site
A map showing the location of the Lakeside Drive site (Picture: EdgeProp LandLens)
The tender for a Government Land Sale (GLS) site at Lakeside Drive closed on June 3, drawing six bids. The top bid of $608 million, or $1,132 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr), came from City Developments Limited (CDL).
CDL’s bid was 10.4% higher than the second-highest bid of $550.56 million ($1,025 psf ppr) that came from a joint venture between Frasers Property and Mitsubishi Estate Asia. The next highest bidder was a CapitaLand Development-Sing Holdings joint venture, which submitted a bid of just over $529 million ($985 psf ppr), 4.1% lower than the bid by Frasers Property and Mitsubishi Estate Asia.
The remaining bids came from Wee Hur Holdings ($503.9 million or $938 psf ppr), followed by a joint venture between Hong Leong Holdings and TID ($495.18 million or $922 psf ppr) and subsequently Sim Lian Group ($488.2 million or $909 psf ppr).
The Lakeside Drive site is a 145,314 sq ft plot that is zoned for residential with commercial at the first storey use. The site has a gross plot ratio of 3.6 and can yield 575 residential units and 10,764 sq ft of commercial space. It is adjacent to the Lakeside MRT Station on the East-West Line.
In a statement, CDL says if awarded the site, it plans to develop a 575-unit project, comprising five 16-storey residential blocks along with a ground-floor retail podium. The development aims to offer unblocked views of Jurong Lake Gardens.
“Situated near Jurong Lake District, the site stands out for its excellent connectivity and access to a rich array of amenities, schools and green spaces,” says Sherman Kwek, CDL’s group CEO. “With the last GLS site in the vicinity awarded nearly a decade ago, this site will be a strategic addition to our development pipeline.”
The bids garnered by the Lakside Drive site mark a rebound from the lacklustre responses by developers to GLS plots that have launched since the US announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2. The Media Circle (Parcel B) site in the one-north area received zero bids upon tender closing on April 29. Before that, the tender for a GLS site at Lentor Gardens had closed on April 3 with just two bids.
Still, the number of bids pale in comparison to the Bayshore Road GLS site that closed with eight bids in March 2025 before the tariffs were announced, remarks Tricia Song, head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia at CBRE. “Amid slowing new home sales and economic headwinds from tariff uncertainty, developers continued to display heightened caution,” she opines.
The gap between the lowest and highest bids, at 24.5%, may also reflect mixed market sentiments among participating bidders, points out Marcus Chu, CEO of ERA Singapore.
Nonetheless, the response to the Lakeside Drive site indicates developers’ willingness to pursue parcels that have attractive attributes, says Leonard Tay, head of research at Knight Frank Singapore. “Although developers remain mindful of development costs…the attractiveness of the Lakeside Drive site surmounted some of these concerns,” he adds.
Besides being at the doorstep of the Lakeside MRT Station, the site’s proximity to schools, Jurong Lake Gardens, and the Jurong Lake District boosted its appeal, observes Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex.
Wong also points out that there have been no condo launches in the area since 2016, when the 710-unit Lake Grande launched. “We anticipate there could be possible pent-up demand for private homes in this area, including from HDB upgraders who are currently residing in the Jurong area,” she elaborates.
If the site is awarded to CDL, the $1,132 psf ppr land rate for the Lakeside Drive site will be one of the highest for a residential GLS plot in the Outside Central Region (OCR) in recent years, says Wong. It is superceded only by the $1,388 psf ppr achieved for the Bayshore Road site in March and the $1,250 psf ppr transacted for the GLS plot at Clementi Avenue 1 (now the site of the 501-unit Elta). The top bid for the Lakeside Drive plot is also higher than Media Circle (Parcel A) in the Rest of Central Region that was awarded in March for $1,037 psf ppr.
Based on the top bid, Wong estimates that the average selling price for the future development on the Lakeside Drive site could hover around $2,400 psf.
ERA Singapore’s Chu believes the future project will set a new benchmark price for the Lakeside area, surpassing the 306-unit The LakeGarden Residences and the 440-unit Sora, which launched in 2023. The projects have achieved median prices of $2,134 psf and $2,216 psf, he adds.
Chu notes that the new project will supply crucial new stock in the Jurong West market, where currently only 327 units remain across The LakeGarden Residences and Sora. In contrast, around 2,890 HDB flats in Jurong West will hit their minimum occupation period in the next five years, which is anticipated to drive demand for private housing in the area.
Follow Us
Property updates, 24/7.
Subscribe to Newsletter
Market insights, delivered weekly.
Top Articles
Search